Chapter 106

Lexie and Sally have brought the trio out to the dog park with a very pregnant Snowball, Lexie had been working on the book for the trio and putting out feelers through the her fellow writers.  A few were panning out, she was scheduled to have lunch with one editor that Ava Stone had recommended, and tomorrow she was lunching with Karen Hawkins and her editing team.

“Do you think Ava’s editor will take you on?”  Sally asked her as she tossed the ball for Snowball.

“Ava thinks so, he wants to branch out into my genre, that sort of scares me, but she loves him and he’s not a pushy type that puts close deadlines on his writers. That I think is a plus on his side.”  She fed Livie bites of banana, Cullen and Maddy were reaching for their share of bites.

  “Good, how’s your new book coming?”  Sally sat on the bench with a tuckered out little momma at her feet.  She reached and broke off some banana off for Cullen and Maddy.

“I had forgotten how hard it is not to go all Mother Goose or Doctor Seuss.” Lexie laughed “It must be good, because the trio loves it and I’m hearing the voices in my head again.  I’ve been missing the voices, man that makes me sound schizophrenic, but if it’s going good, I hear the characters voice in my head.”

“You’ve talked about that in chat before.  I want to thank you and Mr. Jon for letting me help with the kids.”  Sally said as she wiped some banana remnants off Cullen’s chin.

“Hellen was needed at home, and I hate going through all the interviews, I know you, you signed all the papers without problem and the biggest thing is I trust you.”  Lexie looked over at Sally’s bowed head.  “The boys like you too.”

Sally looked up at Lexie and blushed a little.

“We’re just friends.” Sally mumbled.

“I’m glad you’re friends, senior year and all, harder classes and visiting Notre Dame and all.”  Lexie watched her babies start to yawn and rub their eyes. 

“He’s got a good head on his shoulder, he knows what he’s going into.  He’s the man of the house while his dads gone, he told me last night while I was rocking Maddy,”  She looked up, “he was rocking Cullen.”

“Oh, he’s helping with the Trio?”  Lexie looked at Sally to see how she reacted.

“There’s nothing going on Lexie, we’re just friends.” Sally laughed.  “I’m almost two years older than he is.”

“There’s a problem with being two years older?  Jon’s older than I am, we have no problems.”  Lexie told her.

“I think he thinks of me as an older sister.”  Sally told her as she tossed the banana peel into the garbage.

“The way he watches you when you come into the room, that’s more than a sisterly look.”  Lexie teased.

“I think you’re mistaken.”  Sally packed up the Trio’s picnic and made sure Snowball was ready to head back.

“If you say so.” Lexie giggled, this was going to be fun to watch, she thought.

Latter after dinner and a little television everyone was in their room, Lexie was in Jon’s office with her laptop.  She was reading her email when she got a skype notice.

“Hey rock star, are you at the arena?” Lexie asked Jon as he came onto the screen.

“Yeah Richie is up there making the women cream in their panties.” Jon laughed as he towel dried his chest, before changing shirts.

“It’s just the Richie girls, yours are at the bar getting drinks.” She laughed.

“I just needed to see you.”  Jon waved off the hairdryer but accepted the cup of hot tea.

She noted the change in his tone, she had seen last night’s audience.  Matt was sending her pictures nightly.

“Well Rock Star, we have six kids and I had lunch with an editor today, I am where I need to be and you are where you need to be.”  Lexie reached for her cup of tea.

Jon’s head popped up, “Lunch, with an editor, was this a male editor?”  He slid closer to the screen.

“I don’t think we have a problem with Kevin, he brought my third number one fan with him, his wife.”  Lexie sipped her tea to hide her smile. He could be an ocean away, shaking his ass in front of skimpy clad cougars, and still get all alpha on her.

“Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t take you on the table and make you scream.” Jon told her as he put on his red shirt just for her.

“Oh come on Rock Star, you know I only scream for you,” Lexie rolled her eyes at her husband.

“I have to go shake my money maker, give the kids and extra kiss from their pop and I will be online later after the show tomorrow night.”  Jon started to stand up and blew her a kiss.

“Shake it Rock Star, but please don’t break it.”  She blew the kiss back to him.

Thumbing through her email she had heard from her first kids book publisher, Scholastic, they loved the rough draft and sent some illustrations for her to approve.  By the time Jon got home the book would be in print at the printers.

Lexie stood on the field with the other parents at the football practice.  She wasn’t shocked that Muffie and Biff, with their designer booze filled coffee cups.  She tried to keep her distance from the Biff’s, sure fire deterrent was she brought Snowball to the field.  They would stop and have a vet checkup, the puppies were due around the same time Jon would be home.

Romeo got done first and they headed to Jesse and Jacob’s field, thank God they were side by side.  She dodge one Biff to run into an overdressed Muffie looking for Jon.  She signaled to the older two she would meet them at the car, taking Romeo and Snow she headed to the car.

“Can we stop for Dinner after the vet?”  Romeo asked, as he sipped his soda.

“Are you hungry Romey?” She tossed him a baggie of trail mix.

“Pizza, please?”  He knew if he didn’t get his order in first or they would end up eating at home.

“We’ll order deliver after the Vet.”  She told him as the other two climbed into the car.

The boys sat in the room with her and Snowball.  The vet came in and fired up the ultrasound machine.

“How many puppies are we hoping for?” The vet ran the wand over her tummy.

“Just a few,” Lexie said.

“I think six.” Romeo said

Jesse shrugged his shoulders, he kept looking at his watch.

“I think three is a lucky number in this family now.” Jacob laughed.

“Well I see your lucky number three, maybe four.”  The vet wiped off Snowballs tummy and let the little momma up.  “She should start nesting soon, will need to keep an eye on her, she is a small dog.”

Lexie looked at her baby, nothing could happen to her Snowball.

They barely beat the pizza guy to the townhouse, Sally had the trio down in the family room.  Lexie settled in to watch the Jesse and Sally show.

“How was the vet appointment?”  Sally brought plates to the table, Jacob got the glasses and ice, Jesse got the Soda’s.

“Three maybe four puppies.” Jesse told Sally as he handed her a glass of soda.  They sat side by side on the sofa.

Lexie sat on the floor with the trio and her plate of Pizza.  Romeo brought her a glass of soda.

“Daddy calling tonight?”  Jacob asked from the table.

“I think so, the schedule is on the fridge.”  Lexie told him as she played with the trio.

Jacob went to the kitchen and looked for the schedule on the over loaded fridge door.  Coming back he grabbed another slice smiling at Lexie.

After dinner they tried to keep the trio awake, for Jon’s call.  They were starting to get crabby when the home phone rang.  Jacob rushed over to the phone and grabbed the receiver.

“Hey Dad, I made the team.”  Jacob told his father.

“Way to go Jakey, proud of you son.”  Jon told his son.  “Put it on speaker Jakey.”

“Okay Dad,” Jacob put the call to the speaker.

“Hey Rock Star, you’re missing pizza night.”  Lexie told him.

“Hey my favorite writer,” Jon’s voice came over the speaker.  This sparked the attention to the trio witch started to jibber jabber.

All of a sudden, Cullen comes out with something that sounded like “Da.”

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

“Did Cull just say Da?”  Jon motioned for Richie to come over, he tapped the speaker button on his phone.  “Cull just said Da!”

“Sounded like Da to me.”  Lexie beamed.

“Sounded like Ru to me” Romeo chimed in with a smile.

The object of their discussion just grinned and put his fingers in his mouth. End of his talking for the night.

“Hey, before we get cut off, how was the interview and the vet, I need to find puppy homes soon.”  Jon asked Lexie and the rest of the band waved off the puppies.

“The interview went great, I should have news to tell when you get home in two weeks.  About the puppies, the vet said maybe four, but could be more.”  Lexie informed Jon.  “Hey Rock Star, I sent you a story in your email.”

“I saw it, will take a look tonight.  Love you all, got to go.  See you guys in two weeks.”  Jon said over the crackling on the phone, then the line went dead.

Later that night she was reading her email when Skype beeped.

“Hey Rock Star, what are you still doing up?”  Lexie smiled at Jon.

“I read your story and loved it, wanted to let you know.”  Jon leaned back on the headboard of the hotel bed.  “I went out with Rich, we ended up bar hopping and I think it was well documented.”  He chuckled.

“In other words, Rock Star, you two got blitzed, shit faced, blot toed.” Lexie laughed.

“Yeah one of those, we’ll pay for it tomorrow, erase that, today.  I miss you, I can’t wait to go home, and I’m even making my schedule off.”  He yawned.

“Go to bed Rock Star, I love and miss you very much.” She blew him a kiss.

“Love you.”  He blew her a kiss back.

Signing out of skype she signed off her laptop.  Picking up her empty tea glass, she headed down to the kitchen.  Passing the family room she stopped, there sitting on the sofa, watching a movie, in the dark was Sally and Jesse.

“Just friends my ass.”  Lexie shook her head and moved on to the kitchen with her glass.